)
So much then for the properties of testicles in male animals.
In female animals furnished with a womb, the womb is not in all
cases the same in form or endowed with the same properties, but both
in the vivipara and the ovipara great diversities present
themselves. In all creatures that have the womb close to the genitals,
the womb is two-horned, and one horn lies to the right-hand side and
the other to the left; its commencement, however, is single, and so is
the orifice, resembling in the case of the most numerous and largest
animals a tube composed of much flesh and gristle. Of these parts
one is termed the hystera or delphys, whence is derived the word
adelphos, and the other part, the tube or orifice, is termed metra. In
all biped or quadruped vivipara the womb is in all cases below the
midriff, as in man, the dog, the pig, the horse, and the ox; the
same is the case also in all horned animals. At the extremity of the
so-called ceratia, or horns, the wombs of most animals have a twist or
convolution.
In the case of those ovipara that lay eggs externally, the wombs
are not in all cases similarly situated. Thus the wombs of birds are
close to the midriff, and the wombs of fishes down below, just like
the wombs of biped and quadruped vivipara, only that, in the case of
the fish, the wombs are delicately formed, membranous, and
elongated; so much so that in extremely small fish, each of the two
bifurcated parts looks like a single egg, and those fishes whose egg
is described as crumbling would appear to have inside them a pair of
eggs, whereas in reality each of the two sides consists not of one but
of many eggs, and this accounts for their breaking up into so many
particles.
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